Tools Featured in this Teardown

Video Overview

Learn how to repair your Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 with this video overview.

Introduction

Oculus VR took the world by surprise last year with the Oculus Rift. This year, they seek to push their own self-created envelope with the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2. We may not have flying cars, hoverboards or (commercial) teleporters, but we do have the latest virtual reality tech. Join us as we ogle the wizardry in the Oculus Rift DK2, teardown style.

All well and good, but DK1 ran away with an impressive 9/10 repairability score when it hit our teardown table in the Spring of 2013. Here's hoping that score holds as the Rift evolves to its newest incarnation. Let's see what's what!

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The DK2 includes a brand-spanking-new positional tracking unit. Essentially, it's a custom-made external IR camera, specially designed to work with the new Development Kit.

According to Oculus VR, "it is not possible to substitute an old webcam, nor is it possible to retrofit the tracking to the original Development Kit."

The Oculus Rift DK2 retains its 360° orientation tracking, with no camera needed—just like the first version of the Oculus Rift. But to get the added benefit of positional tracking, you'll need to be in the external IR camera's field of view.

Positional tracking does what it says on the tin: it tracks the position of your head in 3D space, relative to the sensor. When you lean in to examine a virtual object, the environment zooms in to translate your movement, adding another layer of interactivity and realism.

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We love our IR camera. Anyopportunity to capture that exciting invisible glow, and we're all over it. So when we heard that the DK2 was going to incorporate the IR LED array of the Crystal Cove prototype, but with the LEDs on the inside, we knew it was our camera's time to (catch the) shine once again.

With the DK2 fully hooked up and running its demo software, the positional tracking camera starts tracking—with the help of light totally invisible to our eyes, blasted through the black plastic of the front of the headset.

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Here at iFixit, we are unabashed lovers of screws—they epitomize everything that's good about repair. Which is probably why Oculus VR sneaked this maddeningly uncooperative non-screw in here, just to mess with us.

Actually, this could just be a minor manufacturing snafu. Apart from the lack of threads, this little guy is identical to two other (perfectly ordinary) Phillips screws nearby.

If you happen to find yourself disassembling a DK2 in the future, do let us know—we want to compare notes (and steal your screws).

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We manage to liberate the motherboard from the DK2's eyewear enclosure with ease.

This motherboard is a major change from the previous incarnation of the Oculus Rift. All of the device's guts are now packed onto a single board, eliminating the need for an external control box.

We've got to hand it to Oculus, because they've really stepped up their motherboard design. It's easy to remove, and quite a looker as well. We'll have to see if this Oculus design can stand the test of time and make it into the consumer model.

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With the motherboard out of the way, we're ready to extract the DK2's display.

The display has a rubber case housed in a plastic backing. Our spidey senses start tingling when we peel off the rubber case...

The display is—drumroll please—literally the front panel of a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

This seems to make economical sense, since Oculus is working to ship something like 45,000 DK2s—a goodly number for a mid-development prototype, but certainly not enough to warrant a fully custom display. It looks like Oculus is already taking advantage of their partnership with Samsung.

Oculus claims that the DK2 display is a low-persistence OLED screen capable of a 75 Hz refresh rate. This means that Oculus is overclocking the Note 3 display panel from its stock 60 Hz, which results in smoother motion.

*rofl* about that eyelash controller, good one! ^^ love to see how cleverly market-ready products such as the Samsung display unit are included.

Besides a front-facing stereo set of cameras for AR, I think an eye tracker would make sense. While its output would not affect the perspective, software might make use of knowing where you are currently looking.

Hello everyone, can anyone please tell me what each of the 14 parts would be called in the picture of the complete breakdown? I understand if I sound a bit silly, but I am just trying to be completely thorough. Thank you very much!

It'd be fantastic to have stereo camera and microphones on front, and speakers on the head band, so that I could use this device to watch and hear what's going on around me. Non of that virtual or augmented reality stuff, just pure reality - in real time! I could finally go outside and just enjoy watching and hearing stuff.

For cardboard the Google guys says 1" (25,4mm), But this is only the durovis dive lens kit.

that must not be the best. At SurplusShed I can decide between many diameters and focal points.

If we had the diameter, focal pint, and if possible the other data like lens (middle) distance to screen, Eye distance to lens (middle) etc. we could "tinker" a cardboard version for Android based on the oculus rift measurments.

Quick question for you guys. You know how the unit has the adjuster knobs for moving the display further or closer to your eyes? When I first went to put my DK2 on and I pulled the straps back, the left side of the unit pulled back with it while the right side stayed in place.

It's not a major issue since I just adjusted the knob back appropriately, but since then I've noticed that the left knob is no longer in perfect alignment with the hashmarks. On the furthest setting, the knob sits further back than the last hashmark, while on the right side it won't go any further than that.

Is there any way I can easily fix this and get the HMD back in its proper alignment? It's only off on the left side by a few centimeters, and it does cause a noticeable blur problem on the left side of my vision unless I tilt the entire unit, which can become uncomfortable.

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